Who loses from education cuts?

On the day that RSA director of education Professor Becky Francis has spoken at the NUS Zone conference in Liverpool on the disadvantage faced by working class children before they even begin formal primary schooling, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has published a report revealing that early years funding will suffer more from cuts than the formal schooling sector over the coming five years.

Further education funding is also set to take a harder hit than other sectors. As pointed out by a recent RSA report, FE colleges cater for large numbers of relatively disadvantaged young people in the UK and so this group will be disproportionately affected by the reduction in spending.

The Liberal Democrats published their spending priorities for education on Monday, but by ignoring the debate about the content and purpose of schooling they missed the chance to make any contribution to the real debate in ...